


Steady by your side, keep me in the light

by sweetlikehoney (Nina_Carter)



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, concrit welcome and encouraged, supportive gfs, the author fucking hates hemingway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:28:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26436433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nina_Carter/pseuds/sweetlikehoney
Summary: Jaida and Nicky help each other through the stress of senior year.
Relationships: Nicky Doll/Jaida Essence Hall
Comments: 12
Kudos: 18





	Steady by your side, keep me in the light

Nicky was not stupid. Jaida knew that, their friends knew that, and, at a rational level, Nicky herself knew that too. It was just their teachers who seemed to disagree.

Since moving to the States, she had been struggling with most subjects. Studying in her second language took her twice as long and left her exhausted, and sometimes she gave up halfway through the unit and researched the topic in online French textbooks, hoping they covered everything her teachers would ask from her. Her grades had taken a nosedive and her current GPA was barely hanging above the 3.63 required by her first choice college.

Jaida did her best to help her, but between basketball practice, her internship and her own load of high school work, they barely had enough time for two study dates a week. Nevermind  _ actual  _ dates. Senior year was riding them hard and there was no break in sight. On the rare moments of peace (about five minutes long each), Jaida daydreamed about the summer she would spend with her girlfriend. Two months of getting drunk with their friends and laying next to the pool without moving a muscle to recover from the mental wreckage of senior year, before everyone packed up their whole lives and moved away.

But first, they had finals to pass.

Jaida sat on her bedroom desk, with her laptop open to a new document and a copy of The Old Man and the Sea, which she was coloring with annotated post-its. Every couple of minutes, she glanced at her phone. Nicky was supposed to have joined her half an hour ago, and she hadn’t even texted. Jaida forced herself not to worry; she knew Nicky had stayed after class to talk to her civics teacher about an assignment for extra credit.

_ If she doesn’t show signs of life in the next fifteen minutes, I’m calling her. _

She didn’t have to, because just a few minutes later, she heard the front door opening and the voices of her mom and her girlfriend talking, followed by steps approaching her room.

The door flew open and Nicky dragged her feet to the bed, where she flopped face down. Jaida watched her dramatics, amused.

“Sooo, how did it go?”

“Hmhht mhmhnt,” said Nicky, face buried into the mattress.

“Come again? Maybe lift your head.”

“I got the assignment.”

“Why so down, then?”

Nicky rolled onto her back and faced her girlfriend. “He wants me to write about threats to democracy, which sounds extremely depressing. And we’re both getting fashion bachelors! Why do we need to understand gerrymandering?”

“Because we live in Missouri. Why did you even take AP government?”

“I freaked out about the GPA, because I’m dumb.”

Jaida raised an eyebrow at her. “Nicolette.”

Nicky closed her eyes and breathed out.

“I’m not dumb. I’m smart. I’m just stressed, and that’s okay.”

Jaida’s expression softened as she walked towards the bed. “That’s better,” she praised, sitting next to her. “Let’s get the lit essay over with, then I’ll help you with civics.”

Nicky sat up and collapsed against Jaida. “D’accord. Hemingway can suck a dick, though.”

Jaida smiled and pressed her lips against Nicky’s temple. “On that, we can agree.”   
  


* * *

  
  


Two thousand words each and a coffee break later, the girls sat on the bed, facing the laptop.

“You misspelled ‘onomatopoeia’, here,” said Jaida, pointing at the screen. Nicky leaned forward to fix it.

_ backspace backspace backspace _

“You also used ‘allusion’ instead of ‘allegory’.”

Nicky frowned.

“Allusions describe ideas through characters and storylines, no?”

“No, that’s allegories. Allusions are just references to important people or events.”

_ backspace backspace backspace _

“And you listed foreshadowing under figures of speech, but it isn’t.”

“Why did I… oh,” said Nicky, closing her fists and rubbing her eyes. “It’s  _ préfiguration _ in French. I got confused. I hate this fucking language.”

Nicky fell onto Jaida and buried her face on her neck. Jaida started playing with Nicky’s hair with one hand and kept marking the essay with the other. She corrected one, two, three misspellings before she felt kisses along her neck clouding her judgement.

“Baby, focus, come on,” she said, jolting her shoulder. Nicky persisted.

“Nooo. You’re much more interesting than Hemingway.”

“Girl, the bar is so low…”

“Five minute break?” asked Nicky, and grazed Jaida’s skin with her teeth.

That was a step too far, because Jaida pulled away and grabbed Nicky’s face in her hands.

“Nicolette. Behave.”

Nicky huffed and fell face down on the bed, screaming into the pillow. Jaida rolled her eyes and poked her side.

“Get up, drama club. We’re not done.” Jaida slapped Nicky’s thigh, expecting her to sit up and retaliate.

Instead, Jaida noticed, her back started shaking.

“Nicks?” she said, laying down next to her.

The only response was a sob.

“Oh, baby, no, come here…” Jaida pulled Nicky close, until she could press kisses all over her face.

They stayed like that, with Jaida rubbing circles on Nicky’s back, until the sobs subsided and Nicky could speak again.

“I’m sorry, I know I’m acting like a brat,” she said, wiping her eyes forcefully.

“You’re not a brat, you’re a senior in finals,” said Jaida, kissing her hairline. “I cried in the gym showers twice this week; you’re doing just fine. What’s going on?”

“I’m scared about this class. It took me forever to read that stupid book, I even had to read a summary in French because I kept getting lost. And I still have to memorize the forty fucking words there are to say ‘metaphor’ and I’m already getting a headache.”

Jaida laughed and rolled onto her back, dragging Nicky with her.

“There’s only five, we’ll go over them later.” Nicky hummed in agreement and settled on her girlfriend’s chest.

A few seconds later, she broke the silence.

“So... why were  _ you  _ crying?”

Nicky felt Jaida’s breathing stutter under her cheek. She ran her nails between Jaida’s clavicles and waited.

Jaida took a moment to answer.

“Bio’s kicking my ass,” she sighed. “Mrs. Jensen’s been lenient, but…” she trailed off, shaking her head. “She’s not gonna bump up my grade just ‘cause I ask her. I either do well in the final, or I kiss you and our college goodbye.”

Nicky propped herself up and looked at Jaida, who wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“What did you say?”

Jaida stared at the wall and shrugged dismissively.

“We never discussed long-distance. All of our plans assume we’ll be living on the same campus, but if I don’t get in and you do, I don’t- I’m not sure what that’s gonna look like.”

Jaida feels Nicky’s hand on her cheek, tilting her face forward.

“First of all, I’ve seen your grades. You just need an eight. You’re  _ getting  _ an eight, Jaida, it’s  _ you _ . And second of all,” she dropped ‘till their noses were touching, “it’s cute how you think that long distance is enough to get rid of me,” Nicky said, poking her tongue out and licking Jaida’s lips.

Jaida grinned, big and toothy, and pushed Nicky off. Her girlfriend fell on her back, laughing.

“Fuck off, I’m trying to open up, bitch.”

Nicky took her hand and smiled at her. “I know. I love you.” She turned to face her. “I’m going to be serious, now.”

“Oh, no…”

Nicky lightly bumped Jaida’s chin with her knuckles. “Whatever the next years will look like, here, in Missouri, in fucking Antartica, I don’t see a life without you in it. I love my family, and our friends, but you’re the person who’s made these past years bearable.”

Jaida smiled and squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to get emotional at the memory of little fifteen-year-old Nicky. Jaida had seen her all lonely and lost that first week of class and sauntered into her life, and they just hadn’t parted ways since.

“Remember when you first moved here? You were so quiet and shy, it was adorable. Now I can never get you to shut up.”

“You have your methods,” Nicky smirked. “Speaking of which…”

“We’re not done with your essay, Nicks.”

Nicky pouted and put on her best puppy eyes. Jaida could feel her resolve slipping.

“Don’t give me those eyes, that’s not fair…”

Nicky leaned in to kiss Jaida’s nose, her cheek, the corner of her mouth.

“Break now?”

Jaida moved on top of Nicky and kissed her back, slow and sweet.

“You get ten minutes.”

“Fine by me.”

**Author's Note:**

> I love this ship a lot.  
> Did you know feedback means the absolute world to an author? Theresa lot of physical movement in this fic, and I'm curious to see if it flows well.  
> Also I had to research the american high shool and college system for this, so please leave a comment.


End file.
